‘Turmoil constantly swirls around the topic of bolt specifications, To help answer questions about bole buy: ing specifving and quality assurance, the Research Council on Struetural Connections has lssued a series (f bulletins, the fifth of which is printed here. The previous four bolt bulletins were print in the October 1905 isue of Modern Stool Construction. RESEARCH COUNCIL ON STRUCTURAL CONNECTIONS Education Committee Bulletin No. 5 The Effect Of Burrs On The Shear Capacity Of Bolted Connections ‘Small burrs will form around drilled andior punched holes even when equipment is in good fondition and the equipment operator is experie teed and attentive, That is, burrs are inherently tasociated with all hole making methods, Burrs nay extend above the plate surface by as litle as feveral thousandths of an inch or more than a tenth ofan inch. Questions are raised from time to timo regarding the effect of burrs upon the perfor- siance of ronnestions, hath bearing type and slip eritical ype, BrarinG CONNECTIONS ‘Tho 1994 edition of Specification for Structural Joints Using ASTM Ad25. or A490. Bolts ISectiona(h)) does not require removal of burrs which extend "in, oF less above the plate surface for conneetions which are not slip cittieal. The ‘904 Edition retains the earlier requirement in Section aCe) that bolts in connections that are not slip critical be tightened to the snug tight cond tion, and retains the definition of snug tight asthe tighiness that exists when the ples of the joint are in firm contact, However, the definition of snug fight in Section 8(@) haa been clarified by the addi- fion of the direct statement that tis not necessary to have all plies of a joint in continuous contact ‘Tho modifications to Sections 3b) and 82) are in recognition ofthe fact that plies ofa joint can be in firm contact without being in contact at every int Surface contact and bolt tension do not afect the altimate eapacity of a connection. In a recently completed research project™?, burrs ranging in Tight from 0.0 to 0.176 sn, were intentionally pro duced by out-ofspecifiestion punching (See AISC Spee, M25) of, in. diameter holes in Lin. plate ‘The platas were ised to build 45 fourply connec: tions, The #), i, ASTM A225 bolt/nut fastener assomblies were tightened only to the finger tight ‘condition. In some test specimens, gaps larger than "Fn. eould be seen belwoon the plates and the nits could not be brought Mush with the end of the bolts by finger tightening. Ta spit of the extremely poor fitup end negligible bolt tension, the average bolt shear strength of all connections tested was ‘820 kei with bolt shoar strengh on individual connections ranging from 69.7 to 93.9 ksi, The nominal capacity listed for A825 bolts in the Spcifiation is 60 Ks. This eapacty is based upon tests of joints free of burrs which exhibited an average bolt shear capacity of 50. ks. The recent ly completed tosts clearly demousteaie that it ie nob necessary ta remove burrs to achiove ultimate ‘eapacities compatible with desigr values listed in ‘the Specification, ‘Sup Criricat CONNECTIONS ‘Unlike bearing capacity of comections, the slip ‘apacity of a connection is highly dependent upon bolt tension and the qvality of contact between fay ing surfaces, The Specification, in Section 3(b), equines the removal of burrs that would prevent solid seating of the connected parts in the snug tight condition for all slip evitical connections. However, az mentioned above, snag tight isnot to be interpreted as requiring continuous contest Jbetween connected parts, Slip eepacity is depen- dont upon the slip caeficent of the faying surfacos fand the total contact foree between the surfaces, fot upon the area of contact, In the research program dessribed above, in addition to bearing tests, separata tests were con- ‘ducted to determine the effect ofburrs on the slip ‘capacity of connections. The resus of tests on 180 Single-bole connections and 60 four-bolt connec-tions demonstrated that, with fully tensioned bolts, Small burrs actually increased the slip load. AS burr height was inereased, slip load inereased to & maximum at a burr height of, in. When bare height was further increased, slip load decreased tani the slip load for in. burrs was approximate Iy the same as for faying surfaces with no burrs Although the slip load is not adversely affected by burrs in the connection, the presence of large burrs in a connection makes it more difficult to ‘achieve proper tension it all bolts. Since the slip, Toad ia dependent upon the total contact force between the plies (equal to the sum af tho bolt tan- sions in the connection), low tension in any of the bolts ean lead to rediced slip capacity ‘The Specifietion requires that forall tightening, techniques, the balls shall frst be brought to the snug Gieht condition by progressively tightening bolts systematically from the most rigid part of the Joint to the free edges until all bolts are uniformly Snug tight. Pinal tightening also must progress systematically from the most gid part of the joint to the free edges. The Specification also states that ‘proper tensioning yay require more chan 2 single eyele of systematic tightening. The required process is necessary because each time a bel is ‘ghtened, it compresses material under provieusly ‘tightened adjacent bolts and thus reduces the final total bolt tension inthe connection, The mere rigid the material snder the bolts, the lees the material will be compressed by subsequently tightened bolts find the smaller will be the decrease in total bolt Burrs eause the material within the grip of » bolt to be more compressible. Therefore, more cycles of tightening are required to achieve uniform bolt tension when burrs are present, Similar con- clusions were drawn in reference 4.) In the research deseribed above, each bolt in the connec. tions was tightened tan per tightening eyele. In specimens with the smallest burrs, the burrs were flattened by the snugging operation. Tho amount of final tightening rotation required & achieve the proper tension was essentially the same as if'no bburr existed. Tn the specimens with the largest burr, one and one-half turns past snug tight were ‘commonly required tp achieve the proper uniform bolt tension (the Specification calls for one-half thum for the bolt length and diameter that was used in the tests) An incremental approach, os used in the tosts, is necessary with calibrated ‘wrench, direct tension indieator and tension eon: ‘rol bolt tensioning methods to achieve the proper bolt tension with acceptable uniformity. Proper tension can be achieved using the turn-of-nut method only whes the material contains small barra which are flattened during the snugging ‘operation CONCLUSIONS Tie lps ere ieee aeot st the frevions af the Spesfccon or Siruetal a Esiny AST Aaa or 0 Bolts feleeeee te eset ees pono i uly po ra ta eee ee eee eS aus a np aloe eee rece meets een ae or teen eee eae er ee ee eee eae ee ones came tan fee eal sce aa ee Sooaike os jams ate ee sa a at eee ae eae Rises teen te ee eats le te Sater ace ae ed ete a eee insctos or tendon conto Dall and tae de tine poser git Gn ioe gerd by he Spector REFERENCES. 1. Zwerneman, FJ. and Y, Saleh, “The Bifet of Burrs on Shear Capacity of Bolted Connections,” Final Report to Research Council on Structural Connections, June 1991. 2. McKinney. N. and F. J. Zwerneman, “The Effect of Burrs on the Slip Capacity in Motiple Bolt Connoctions,” Final Report to the Research Council on Structical Connections, Avgust 199. 3, Wallaert, J-J. and J. W. Fisher, “Shear Strength of High-Strength Bolts,” Journal of the Structural Division Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. $1, No. STS, June 1965, pp, 99-125, 4, Polyzois, D. end J. A. Yura, “Eifect of Burrs on Bolted Frietien Connections," Engineering ournal, ATSC, Vol 22, No.3, 1985, pp. 188-142. Molen Sel Costus Saary 1908/65 i ana